quod

UK/kwɒd//kwɑd/

quod noun: a quadrangle or court, as of a prison; a prison.

Noun

quod (countable and uncountable, plural quods)

(countable) A quadrangle or court, as of a prison; a prison.
- […] not the poorer classes merely, but the rich will be desirous to enjoy the mingled luxury and comfort of a gaol: and we shall hear of blasé Swells become burglars and garotters as a prelude to a prison, and, instead of taking tours for restoration of their health, recruiting it more cheaply by a...1863, Punch, quoted in 1995, Seán McConville, English Local Prisons, 1860-1900: Next Only to Death, page 69
- […]and declined their escort, desiring to be conducted to “quod” by the gallant South Australian police,[…].1878, John Wrathall Bull, Early Experiences of Colonial Life in South Australia, page 264
(Australia, slang, uncountable) Confinement in a prison.
- I don′t suppose you'll get more than a couple of months′ quod for them.c. 1894, Acquaintance of Norman Lindsay, quoted in 2005, James Cockington, Banned: Tales From the Bizarre History of Australian Obscenity, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, paperback →ISBN, page 7

quod (third-person singular simple present quods, present participle quodding, simple past and past participle quodded)

(archaic, slang) To confine in prison.
- An intelligent costermonger, who was with me when I saw the two brothers, told me that “a costermonger would rather be thought to have come out of prison than out of a workhouse,” for his “mates” would say, if they heard he had been locked up, “O, he’s only been quodded for pitching into a crusher.”1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

quod

(obsolete) Quoth.
- “Why,” quod her friend, “would ye not willingly have gone with your company, if God should so have suffered it?”1563, John Foxe, “Actes and Monuments”, in The Church Historians of England: Reformation Period, published 1868, Volume 8, Part 1, page 422
- “And therefore I have granted to their request,” quod the King;[…].1908, James Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation in England: An Historical Survey, Cambridge University Press, published 2010, page 416

قید خانہ, زنداں

From 1855-1903 a chapel was built, the boat shed and holding cell constructed, Government House was constructed as a summer residence for the Governor and the Quod (slang for prison) was constructed.2000, R.I.C. Publications, Workbook E: Society and Environment, page 48:
Pity McNamara′s still doing his stretch in the quod, but he′ll be out soon.2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 202:

Noun
plural	quods
alternative form	quad
Verb
third-person singular present	quods
present participle	quodding
past participle	quodded
past	quodded

Abbreviation of quadrangle; originally (17th century) referring to the quadrangles of Newgate Prison, London.

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does quod mean?: Quod means a quadrangle or court, as of a prison; a prison.
What is quod in Urdu?: Quod in Urdu is قید خانہ, زنداں. See Quod meaning in Urdu.
How do you use quod in a sentence?: From 1855-1903 a chapel was built, the boat shed and holding cell constructed, Government House was constructed as a summer residence for the Governor and the Quod (slang for prison) was constructed.
What part of speech is quod?: Quod can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce quod?: Quod is pronounced /kwɑd/ (US).
What is the plural of quod?: The plural of quod is quods.

Adapted from Wiktionary: quod (page history and authors); quod (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-quod.wav.

Cite this entry: “quod.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quod. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.